Oregon Trail, Year Three

For the past three years, Steve and I have been traveling annually to Corvallis, Oregon to visit our friend Jack who is attending grad school at Oregon State. The first two years, we drove. This year, after driving to Arizona for a family reunion, I was done with driving. So, we decided to take the train.

We took the Coast Starlight train from San Jose to Albany, Oregon. Unintentionally, this is probably one of the greenest trips we have ever taken. We walked to downtown Santa Cruz where we picked up a bus to take us to San Jose where we hopped on a train to Albany where we were picked up by Jack and driven to Corvallis in his Pruis hybrid. But, anyway…

On the way up, we traveled in coach. It wasn’t too bad, but neither of us slept very well and we decided to upgrade to a sleeper car on the way back. The sleeper was a fantastic way to travel and we would certainly be willing to do it again, but we never would have realized how nice it was without spending those seventeen hours in coach.

We were in Corvallis from around lunch time last Friday to late afternoon last Monday. It was the perfect length for the trip. We had plenty of time to do a lot of great stuff, but didn’t wear out our welcome at Jack’s house.

The highlight of the trip for me was our excursion to Portland. Big cities always have a lot of activities to offer and Portland has the added bonus of smelling much better than, say, San Francisco.

We started our trip in the giant rose garden overlooking the city.





The beautiful view of the city from the park.
The most quaint bathroom I've ever seen.
Wildlife (yes, I know it's just a squirrel, but he was posing so nicely)


From there, we moved on to Powell’s Books, a fantastic book store the size of a city block.

We easily could have spent the entire day there, but we left with our piles of books and headed for a great used clothing store (much nicer and stocked with better quality than your typical thrift store). Steve and I left with several new items, one of which (my new jacket) is shown below at dinner.


Dinner was at the “world famous” Jake’s. They are known for their crawfish. Having never had crawfish, I decided to give it a shot. I don’t know that I’d ever get them again (they weren’t as tasty as crab or lobster) but it certainly was an experience.

From there, we walked to the infamous Voodoo Donuts. The hole-in-the-wall shown below is their second store. It was so dark inside that my pictures did not turn out well, but it is the strangest donut experience you’re ever likely to have. From the bacon maple bars to the signature voodoo doll (a chocolate frosted jelly donut in the shape of a voodoo doll, complete with a pretzel stabbed into his little heart) everything they serve is quirky and delicious. It was definitely a treat.

Strangely enough, one of the best parts of the trip to Portland was where we parked. We parked in the underground garage of an architecture firm. It was only $7 for the whole night and our parking ticket stub gained us access to the lobby to take the elevators down to the parking garage. The lobby was breathtaking. Our pictures do not do it justice.




The end of each cable lining the staircase ended in a small light. The effect was just beautiful.

We also spent some time at the Corvallis disc golf (I was informed that it’s not called “frisbee golf”) course. I didn’t feel much like playing, but it was probably good that I wandered around the park to get some exercise.

Steve sizes up the challenge.

Steve and Jack contemplate their shot options.

Nell (Jack’s dog) thoroughly enjoyed these outings.

Steve and Jack retrieve their discs.

Steve and Jack search (in vain) for Jack’s lost disc in the brambles.

Some of the beautiful trees in the park.

We had a really wonderful time. We went and saw the movie District 9, had a barbeque and also spent some time wandering downtown Corvallis. But all good things must come to an end.


It was a fantastic trip and we look forward to hopefully doing it again next year. Thank you, Jack, for being such a wonderful host!